“All good?” Baz asked.
“Yep. Just lookin’ at the fruits of our labor.”
“You want your bag upstairs?”
She glanced at him over her shoulder and smiled. “Yes, please.”
While he carried her laptop bag upstairs to her office, JJ skimmed the information on the screen, then clicked on the icon for the timeline of events. It started with a phone call from Z on Sunday, August 7th. That call played in her head as she looked at the screen. Z had sounded worried. Not quite frantic. More like frustrated. And definitely determined to find one of his missing agents.
The team then went to New York, also noted on the timeline. They’d met with Ronan Kavanagh, who also hadn’t sounded worried, JJ recalled. Considering the information they’d received had said his sister was missing, that was when it had started to go off course. At least for her. Had Z attempted to determine Saoirse’s whereabouts, or had he assumed she was missing since he hadn’t heard from Decker? And why would he assume anything?
There’d been a definite change in Z’s attitude once the team landed in New York. As time went by, he hadn’t sounded quite as concerned for Decker’s well-being. Because Brantley was on the case? Or for another reason altogether?
What had changed for him because, based on this timeline, nothing had changed for them until the very last second. It was as though Z had known something all along. Something he hadn’t told them about.
Had Z found out where Decker was and didn’t want to own up to sending them for no reason? Or had Z known more than he was letting on in the beginning? Something about the whole setup felt off to her. Like they’d been used. But why would Z do that? Maybe he thought they would come up empty, and he could check off the box saying he’d done his due diligence. But they’d never failed him before, so why them? And why now?
JJ clicked out of the timeline and glanced at the dark line that connected Decker’s photo to an image of his high school. She clicked on the image to bring up the notes she’d added. Like Baz, no one else thought the connection Decker might have with Kylie Walker was significant. Luca had chalked it up to coincidence. JJ knew better. There was nothing coincidental about Decker joining the task force. For one, they’d had numerous applicants, yet Z had insisted they add Decker to the team. Why? What value had he added while he was there? He’d helped on a few cases, but he hadn’t done anything extraordinary.
Footsteps sounded on the stairs. JJ quickly closed the screen, taking it back to the image of Decker and the lines that connected all the notes they’d added.
“You need me to do anything for you before I call Charlie?” Baz asked.
“No,” JJ said, skimming the screen. “I’m gonna—why do they do this? I bet it was Luca. Probably an acronym for something stupid.”
She stepped forward and tapped the image of a Post-it note with the initials A B. When a file didn’t have a photo, there was a Post-it icon to note there was information in it. She tapped on it.
As soon as the screen changed, she stepped back and gasped. “What the fuck?”
“Is that a picture of Allison Bogart?” Baz asked, coming to stand beside her.
“Yeah,” JJ muttered as she read the notes, which provided her nothing. Nothing of importance anyway. Basic information they’d already had when she applied to join the task force.
“JJ…”
She looked at Baz. “What?”
“Let it go.”
She frowned. “Let it go? Seriously? You want to say that to me after you find out that somehow, some way, there’s a connection between Decker Bromwell and Allison Bogart?”
“Maybe it was misfiled,” he said, but she heard the skepticism in his tone. He didn’t believe that for a second.
“It wasn’t,” she assured him.
“It’s done, JJ. They found Decker. That was the job. Right now, we’ve got other things to focus on.”
“Like what? What could possibly be more important than figuring—”
“Brantley and Reese’s wedding,” he said, cutting her off.
Oh. Right. The wedding that was taking place in thirty-nine days. She had countdown blocks on her desk to remind her that time was running out to plan her best friend’s big day.
“Not to mention, a peanut to be born shortly after that.”
JJ took a deep breath and looked back at the screen.
“If you start digging into that”—Baz’s tone was smooth and even—“you and I both know you won’t stop. At the cost of all else. And right now, I think the last thing we need is to deviate from the path.”
